At Risk of Hypothermia
by OfCourseIAm
Summary: Haru comes back for the first time since Kenji and Shizuku started dating. Shizuku gets cold trying to avoid him. Disregards manga epilogue.


**A/N:** I did not use honorifics in this work since I was pretty sure I would use them wrong, so please just assume all characters are using them correctly.

This is the second part of my series "A Girl Who's Too Domestic." It is set 1-3 months into Kenji and Shizuku's relationship, before they start living together. You may want to read "101 Sex Positions" first, but it is not at all necessary.

Please review and let me know what you think!

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own My Little Monster/Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun.

* * *

Kenji stopped walking and stared at Shizuku. It was winter, and the girl who was perpetually cold was sitting on the steps of his building and shivering in her old fashioned coat and muffler, her forehead against her knees as she hugged herself. As he began to walk forward again, she didn't look up. He shrugged off his coat and settled it around her shoulders, crouching in front of her. Shizuku jerked at his touch and glanced up, and Kenji's heart wilted at how red her cheeks and eyes were. She was either extremely cold, or had been crying. Either way, he leaned forward to put his arms around her. Shizuku buried her face in his neck and sniffled. She didn't wrap her arms around him. He didn't expect her to. She was clearly trying to preserve body heat.

After a moment, Kenji leaned back. "Let's go inside," he said.

Shizuku nodded slightly and stood up, grabbing his coat before it fell and tugging it more fully around her shoulders.

Kenji didn't say anything until they were inside his condo, and after that, not for several minutes. He gently pushed her onto the couch in the living room, then went to the guest bedroom to retrieve two comforters and a quilt. After draping them over her, he went to the kitchen and heated up a mug of hot chocolate. He set that on the coffee table. Shizuku held up his coat. Apparently under her coat and three blankets, she was warmer. He hung it in the foyer and returned to sit beside her.

Shizuku reached for the hot cocoa. "It might be too hot," Kenji warned her.

She took a sip. "It's fine," she replied. Kenji raised an eyebrow. The water had been boiling a minute ago. Did she have a tongue of steel?

That directed his mind towards her tongue and all of the ways it could be used, so he quickly redirected his thoughts away from that.

"So," he said, leaning against the sofa and crossing his legs. "Would you like to tell me why you were on the steps?"

"Can't I visit my boyfriend?"

It still made his heart warm whenever she referred to him as 'her boyfriend.' For so long, that title had referred solely to Haru. Now it was all his. So there.

"Well," he answered. "You always can. In the past you've generally called first, or, you know, not waited on the steps until you were a popsicle."

Shizuku took another sip of hot chocolate. "I wasn't a popsicle."

"Shizuku," Kenji reached forward and put a hand near where her shoulder was. About three blankets and a coat away, but approximately in that area. "You also usually don't avoid something like this."

She took another drink, then a deep breath. "Haru's in town."

Kenji blinked. "And?" Shit. She wasn't going to break up with him, now, was she? Was she nervous about it, and so went to his place to wait to tell him as soon as possible? Had she wanted to go back to being as cold as ice so she didn't have to worry when she broke his heart?

"I didn't want to see him."

Oh. That was good.

Kenji pretended that he hadn't had a mini panic attack at the mention of Haru's name, and nodded slightly. "I see. So, why were you on the steps…?"

"Natsume texted me that he was around." Shizuku frowned. "She told me he was planning on dropping by my apartment later, and that I should make sure that I was prepared to make up with him and break up with you in the meantime."

 _Bitch_ , Kenji thought.

"I didn't want to see him. I knew if I went home that he would be there eventually, and I might run into him if I went there for even just five minutes. So I came here. I didn't realize it was so cold."

"How long were you out there?"

"I don't know," Shizuku muttered. "I came at about 5:20."

Nearly two hours. No wonder she'd been so cold. "Shizuku, not that I'm not happy about seeing you, but why are you so opposed to seeing Haru? I thought that you said you broke up on amiable terms."

Shizuku gazed at the mug in her hands. "We did. I- it's not like he hates me or anything, or I hate him. It's just-" Her phone dinged with a text message. Shizuku reached into her purse, flipping her phone open and reading it. She frowned. "Natsume told him I'm probably here."

"He was at your apartment?"

"Yes." Shizuku dropped the phone and took several large gulps of hot chocolate. "I'm sorry, Kenji, I didn't want him to come here. I didn't think Natsume would tell him where you lived or that… you know…"

Kenji sighed. "Let me guess. He didn't know we were dating."

She shook her head.

Of course. "It's a secure building, Shizuku. He'll be able to call with the intercom as many times as he wants, but if he tries to break in, security will take care of it."

Shizuku took a deep breath, set her mug down, and turned to look at him, her face starting to turn pink. She held up the side of the blanket closest to him. "Will you come here?"

Kenji was pretty sure this was the first time she had actually asked him to hug her. He slid over underneath the offered blanket, and quickly wrapped his arms around her, settling his chin over the top of her head.

There was silence for a moment.

"Is it me?" Kenji finally asked, raising his head slightly. "Is that why you're scared to talk to him?"

"Not really," she muttered. "Haru just… he always makes me question my resolve. You don't realize how hard it was for me to break up with him."

Kenji raised an eyebrow. "I think I do. I saw you that day."

The intercom buzzed. Shizuku twitched.

"Do you want to talk to him?"

Shizuku sighed. "I shouldn't leave him down there. He'll do something stupid."

"No," Kenji grabbed her arm as she stood. "Let me call him up here. Make him face it."

"But he might-"

"I've always been good at dodging. Nothing is here that I cannot replace if he breaks it. He would never willingly hurt you."

Shizuku stared at him for a long moment, before nodding slightly.

Kenji rose and stepped over to the intercom in the foyer as it buzzed again. Idiot. He pressed the button. "Yo, Haru."

"Yamaken. I'm here for Shizuku."

"I know. Come on up."

"I don't-"

Kenji ended the signal and pressed the button to open the door.

Only a minute later there was a knock on the door. Kenji always wondered at everyone's ability to do that. The only reason he could get from the door of the building to his door in a minute was because he made the trip every day. For the first three months that he'd lived here, he had taken between five and fifteen minutes to find his condo each day.

He glanced at Shizuku. "Ready?"

She nodded and tugged the blankets around her tighter up to her chin.

Kenji opened the door.

Haru glared at him for a moment. "I'm here for Shizuku. That's all."

"She's here."

"I don't want to go in your dirty condo, Yamaken. Send her out."

"Shizuku is cold. She would be at risk of hypothermia if she goes back outside."

"Yeah, right. I don't think it works quite like that, not if she's wearing a coat."

"I'm a doctor."

"Bastard, just let her leave!"

"Haru!" Shizuku's voice came from the living room. "Come here."

Haru shoved Kenji aside and strode inside. Kenji brushed at the front of his shirt, closed the door, and called, "You should take off your shoes."

When he arrived in the living room, Haru and Shizuku were staring each other down. Shizuku looked infinitely more adorable though, covered in several layers of comforters and holding her mug of hot cocoa. Kenji smiled at the thought that she really did look thoroughly taken care of. All she was missing was him wrapping his arms around her, and she would look perfectly possessed by someone other than Haru.

He wouldn't touch Shizuku in front of Haru unless she initiated it. Not anymore. But he certainly would take a seat next to Shizuku, cross his legs, and open a book.

Haru's scowl was so worth it.

"Shizuku," Haru finally growled. "I want to talk to you. Why didn't you come home?"

"I wanted to see Kenji," Shizuku replied coolly.

Kenji looked up at Haru and smirked.

The look on Haru's face was priceless. Kenji had been thinking about supporting Shizuku when he'd suggested Haru come upstairs, but this was such a beautiful way of annoying Haru.

"I want to talk to you," Haru repeated.

"Then talk."

"I don't want to talk in front of him!"

"Haru," Shizuku's voice was ice cold and firm. Perhaps her time in the cold had been in preparation. "The only thing I can think of that you couldn't speak to me about in front of Kenji would be resuming our relationship. As that is not within the realms of possibility, please take a seat. As Kenji said, I'm cold."

"We could still-"

"Didn't you hear him say I'm at risk of hypothermia? He's a doctor, Haru. Do you want me to get sick?"

Oh, the ice in her voice. Kenji would have cowered if she was addressing him, but of course, they were so perfect together that she had never addressed him in such a tone. Towards Haru, though…? Kenji could practically have jacked off to the ice towards Haru.

That was perverted. Kenji shook that thought out of his head, and settled for smirking up at Haru.

Shizuku was not in any risk of hypothermia, of course, and he was pretty sure Shizuku realized that. So did Haru, evidently, but he couldn't contradict Shizuku.

And he had thought that the day Haru returned would be a bad day.

"I just…" Haru trailed off. "I just wanted to see you again. We- I want you to be happy, Shizuku, and I can't see you being happy with him. If you would just-"

"No, Haru," Shizuku said. "I'm happy."

Kenji's heart warmed.

"But-"

"Haru, I will stay with Kenji until we break up. If you wish to see me, until then, you will have to be cordial to Kenji and not try to pressure me into ending my relationship. This would improve your chances of getting back together with me should Kenji and I break up."

"When will you break up?"

"I don't know. Things are going well."

Kenji smirked at Haru.

Haru's hands balled into fists as he glared back.

"Can you do that, Haru?"

Haru's face tightened for a moment as he glared at Kenji, but then his hands released and his expression softened as he turned back to Shizuku. "Yes, I can. Now can we leave?"

"I can get lunch with you for a half hour tomorrow at the cafe across from the firm."

Haru's eyes widened. "Not tonight? I can't see you tonight?"

"I'm going to eat dinner with Kenji. Alone."

"But-"

"Dinner with Kenji, alone, Haru. I'll see you tomorrow."

Haru's eyes darkened as he stared back at Kenji. Kenji smirked. This was so much fun. Shizuku just kept making it better and better.

"Haru, leave."

"Shizuku, I-"

"Kenji," she interrupted. "You can call security to escort people out of the building, right?"

Kenji smiled charmingly at her. "Why, yes, Shizuku, I can. Would you like me to?"

Shizuku stared at Haru. "I don't know, Haru, what do you think?"

Haru gulped. "I'll go now."

"Don't forget your shoes," Kenji called. "Oh, right, you're still wearing them."

Shizuku hit him. Haru gave him another glare as he opened the door of the foyer.

As soon as the door closed behind Haru, Shizuku raised the blankets on Kenji's side. He smiled and slid over to embrace her.

"You didn't have to be such an asshole to him," she scolded.

"I think he would have been more upset if I was nice to him. He wants to hate me. It would be cruel to take that from him." He paused. "Thanks."

"For what?"

"Standing by me," Kenji responded. "Saying you were happy with me, staying here instead of going off with him, saying that he had to talk with you in front of me…"

Shizuku leaned her head against his chest. "Well, I did say that I had to stay here because I was going to get hypothermia. Which was a lie, right…?"

"That was a lie," Kenji confirmed. "I guess that means we shouldn't go out for dinner."

"Don't you have any food?"

Kenji frowned. "Not fresh. I have frozen dinners, leftovers…"

"You're pathetic. Frozen vegetables?"

"Probably."

"Rice?"

"More likely."

"I'll make something," Shizuku said. "You need to learn how to cook."

"Just don't put carrots in."

"I know, Kenji." Shizuku pushed the blankets out and crawled out of his arms. Kenji missed her immediately. It was strange. Even though the confrontation with Haru had been so wonderfully victorious, with Shizuku consistently defending him and not leaning one inch towards Haru, just being with both Shizuku and Haru had raised the same distanced longing as he had had in high school, where Shizuku had been out of reach and in Haru's arms. Now it was the other way around, but… he didn't feel it right now. He felt like Shizuku was going to give him a tiny nod and walk away after discussing nothing but study guides with him, and run off to Haru's place to hang out with him instead. He felt like he was off her radar again. Even though in reality, she was leaving to go cook him dinner.

Sometimes girls cooked dinner for their friends though. Kenji had been a friend back then.

The sensation stuck.

Kenji rose and caught up with her, grabbing her around the waist and hugging her to him tightly.

"What?" Shizuku asked after a surprised noise.

Kenji didn't answer, just hugged her tightly.

"Um, Kenji? I was going to cook."

Kenji sighed and released her.

Shizuku turned to face him. "Is something wrong? You look upset."

"Nothing's wrong," he said. "Go cook."

Shizuku peered at him for a moment, but eventually nodded and went to explore the contents of the freezer. After a moment, Kenji followed and slid an arm around her waist. "So, what's your thought process with all this?"

"Cooking? What will taste good…"

As Shizuku went about preparing dinner, Kenji kept following her and making excuses to touch her. He would hug her, wrap an arm around her, kiss her forehead, or just stand very close to her. Afterwards, he suggested they watch a documentary so that he could hold her the whole time, breathe in her scent, and remember that now, Shizuku was his, and his alone.

Shizuku seemed very confused by the sudden clinging.

He hoped it didn't remind her of Haru.

But the next night, he called her and she came over, just the same as the night before, and told him about the lunch with Haru.

She'd been alone with Haru, and still came home with him.

Well, Kenji thought that night as he rested his chin on her head, it wasn't as though he had ever failed in getting girls, so he shouldn't be surprised that he was too irresistible for her to leave him for Haru.

He still called her every night that Haru was home though. Just to make sure.


End file.
